1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to resins that are useful for making instrument panel skins used in automobile interiors.
2. Background Art
Currently, three manufacturing processes dominate the vehicle instrument panel manufacturing arena. The dominant processes are slush molding, vacuum forming, and spray urethane. Although each process works reasonably well, there are associated issues.
Vacuum formed instrument panels have a hard “hand” and do not perform cleanly (no shredding or sharding) during −30° C. airbag deployment at −30° C. Moreover, long term weathering has shown that these products become brittle. Spray urethane (aliphatic with inherent light stability and aromatic where a coating is required for weatherability) have less desirable “hand.” Although the spray urethane exhibits property retention after aging and weathering, these materials also exhibit shredding and sharding during −30° seamless airbag deployment. Slush molding can utilize PVC and TPU elastomers. Although certain modified PVCs have acceptable unpainted “hand” for instrument panels, the same materials tend to exhibit the same shredding and sharding issues during −30° C. seamless airbag deployments.
Accordingly, there is a need for new material for forming vehicle instrument panels having acceptable aesthetic touch properties while exhibit proper function during low temperature airbag deployment.